1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to auxiliary devices for muscle strength training, and more particularly, to an auxiliary device for improving muscle strength training effect.
2. Description of Related Art
Rehabilitation therapy for patients with limb paralysis, for example, leg paralysis, is an important issue in the field of physical therapy. Limb paralysis may be caused by a cerebral vascular accident (CVA), a complete or incomplete spinal cord injury, a spinal cord vascular disease, a stroke and so on. After assessing patients' individual conditions, physical therapists develop specialized training plans for the patients. Physical training includes such as muscle strength training, standing balance training and weight shift training. Therein, leg muscle strength training is especially important since leg muscle strength is important in supporting the upper body of a patient.
In particular, physical therapists assess patients' muscle strength conditions and provide different levels of muscle strength training. In addition, different auxiliary devices are used according to different levels of muscle strength training. A manual muscle test (MMT) is generally performed to determine the grade of muscle strength. Muscle strength is graded from 0 to 5. At grade 0, no muscle contraction can be seen. At grade 1, a muscle contraction can be seen. At grade 2, a training movement can be achieved only with gravity eliminated. At grade 3, a training movement can be achieved against gravity. At grades 4 and 5, a complete training movement can be achieved against moderate or full resistance.
The auxiliary devices can be classified into active type and passive type. The passive-type auxiliary devices enable passive muscle strength training for patients, and the active-type auxiliary devices allow patients to perform active muscle strength training. Generally, the active-type auxiliary devices are preferred due to a better rehabilitation effect. Further, since the passive-type auxiliary devices are usually driven by electronic devices such as motors, the passive-type auxiliary devices have a high manufacturing cost and are large in size. Therefore, compared with the passive-type auxiliary devices, the active-type auxiliary devices are smaller, lighter and cheaper.
However, the conventional active-type auxiliary devices only provide resistance and are only applicable for patients with muscle strength above grade 3. For patients with muscle strength below grade 3, the passive-type auxiliary devices are required. Further, in order to adjust the resistance value of a conventional active-type auxiliary device, elastic elements of the auxiliary device need to be changed or relative positions of internal components of the auxiliary device needs to be adjusted, thus resulting in considerable inconvenient in use. Furthermore, since the conventional active-type auxiliary devices cannot assist patients who are incapable of controlling their muscles by themselves (i.e., with muscle strength below grade 3) to perform muscle strength training, specific muscle groups of the patients cannot be effectively trained.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an auxiliary device for muscle strength training so as to overcome the above-described drawbacks.